The annual Communications Market Report published today by Ofcom, the industry watchdog, shows that the average Briton now spends more than seven hours a day consuming media - whether on the internet, fixed and mobile phone lines, watching television or listening to the radio - in total, more than 50 hours a week.

While traditional media has suffered - time spent listening to radio has fallen to about two hours and 50 minutes – a slide of 2 per cent from 2005, new media use continues to grow.

Average daily internet usage surged 158 per cent, with the average person spending 36 minutes a day online. The time spent talking on mobile phones rose by 58 per cent, to almost four minutes a day, while time spent talking on fixed landline telephones was down 7 per cent at seven minutes.

The web generation

Signalling the rise of a new generation of tech savvy children, more than 75 per cent of 11-year-olds claim to own their own television and a games console and a mobile phone.

Some 15 per cent of 13 to 15-year-olds have their own webcam at home.

For children, video games, DVDs and videos have given way to mobile phones, the web and digital music players. The proportion of children listening to the radio has plunged from 40 per cent in 2005 and 20 per cent last year.

Over a third of children, 34 per cent, say they use the web “to find or learn things” alongside those who say they go online “for fun”.

In contrast, only one in ten children say they use TV to broaden their minds.

The most popular content for downloads among children aged 12 to 15 is music videos, followed by user-generated clips. Downloading music files is the most popular activity online.

53 per cent of children play computer games – down from 61 per cent in 2005.

The over-50s

Far from being a technology dominated by young people, a quarter of all internet users are more than 50 years old and the over-50s account for 30 per cent of the total time spent online in the UK.

Older people who use the internet do so for longer periods than any other age-group. The average over-65 you uses the web does so for an average of 42 hours a month.

The gender divide

Among young adults, women now spend more time online than men. Last year, 18 to 34-year-old women spent 130.9 million hours on the internet, compared with 122.1 million hours for men of the same age - despite there being more 18 to 34-year-old men in the country, 6.77 million, compared to 6.67 million women.

Social surfers

One in four people with an internet connection at home uses a social networking site – the figure rises to nearly a third among 15 to 24-year-olds.

23 per cent of people have met somebody online who they did not know before using the web.

Good reception

While people like using some of the functions on their mobile phones, with 41 per cent of respondents enjoying the camera facility, 56 per cent of people say being able to view short video clips on a mobile device is “not at all valuable” .

There are now two mobile subscriptions to every one UK fixed line in the UK – despite penetration of 100 per cent, mobile subscriptions continued to grow. In 2006, BT’s share of fixed voice market fell below 50 per cent for first time.

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